From an uneducated perspective, Sumo wrestling may just seem like two fat, barely dressed, guys wrestling. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The documentary “Sumo East and West” took a look at the world of professional Sumo in Japan as well as looking at amateur Sumo wrestling circuit that is spreading to many other countries. The documentary relates to Ozeki’s novel as it raises questions about the mixing of cultures between East and West.
A statement was made at the beginning of the documentary that Sumo wrestling “represents everything that is good in traditional Japanese culture.” Sumo wrestling is tied closely to the Shinto religion through the certain materials that the dohyo (wrestling ring) are made out of and the blessing ceremony over the dohyo that occurs before a professional Sumo tournament. Similarly, a professional Sumo wrestler in Japan is considered a “demi-God” by the Japanese public. These professional Sumo wrestlers appear in public in a kimono or a silk robe, wear their hair in top-knots and live at the Sumo stable. A Japanese interviewee in the documentary stated that a professional Sumo wrestler in Japan would look just like a Samurai without a sword in public. The world of professional Sumo is steeped in tradition and culture, and the world of the wrestlers themselves revolves around their sport.
In the past few decades, several heavy American wrestlers from Hawaii have joined professional Sumo in Japan, leaving America to immerse themselves in the Sumo lifestyle in Japan. One of these wrestlers, Akebono, became the second only non-Japanese Yokozuna (Grand Champion, the highest award that exists in Sumo.)
The documentary contrasts the strict and highly closed world of professional Sumo wrestling to the less restrictive, emergent amateur Sumo wrestling. Amateur Sumo has been continually changing over the past few years in hopes of becoming an Olympic sport. To become an Olympic sport, however, the International Olympic Committee deemed that Sumo must be open to more people. Thus, spandex shorts were allowed for those who were unable to wear only the wamashi for religious purposes. A crew cut instead of a top-knot is worn by the individuals. Also, the wrestling takes place on wrestling mats instead of the special dohyo that is important to the Shinto religion. However, the most significant change that has been made is the allowance of women to wrestle. In professional Sumo in Japan, it is believed that if a woman even touches the dohyo the ring will be impure and the wrestlers will be injured.
The question then becomes whether amateur Sumo has stripped Sumo wrestling of all of its cultural ties to Japan and is becoming just another sport with no special qualities. In response to the lax rules and requirements of amateur Sumo, the professional Sumo federation in Japan has been raising their standards and now requires professional Sumo wrestlers to be able to speak Japanese, thus further closing their doors on an already greatly closed sport. Ozeki paints cultural mixing and the modern-day multicultural world in a very positive light in My Year of Meats; the question that comes to my mind is if traditional Japanese Sumo wrestling can survive as they continually close their doors to outsiders or if it will slowly die out in favor of the more accessible amateur version.